Displaying posts published in

August 2018

Ex-US attorney: Jury asking about reasonable doubt is ‘glimmer of hope’ for Manafort

http://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/402396-ex-us-attorney-jury-asking-about-reasonable-doubt-is-glimmer-of-hope-for

Former U.S. Attorney Kendall Coffey said that a question posed by the jury in Paul Manafort’s criminal trial about the definition of “reasonable doubt” offers a “glimmer of hope” for the former Trump campaign chairman.

Coffey told told Hill.TV’s Buck Sexton and Krystal Ball on “Rising” that Manafort is facing an uphill battle in his trial on bank and tax fraud charges over the vast number of documents presented against him by federal prosecutors.

“But his team has to have a little bit of glimmer of hope just from the question that jurors want to know more about reasonable doubt,” Coffey said.

“Because there are certainly cases where that can be the final thing that at least gives them a few hold-out jurors,” he continued, “because a hung jury here would be a big victory for the defense.”

A hung jury, or a jury that is so gridlocked that it cannot reach a verdict, would mark the end of the case for now; federal prosecutors could decide whether to retry Manafort.

The jury in Manafort’s trial in federal court in Alexandria, Va., ended its first day of deliberations on Thursday by asking the judge in the case to redefine “reasonable doubt,” along with three other questions.

Manafort’s team celebrated the question at the time, saying that it “indicates someone has doubts.”

The jury signaled in a note on Friday afternoon that they would not reach a verdict in the case before the weekend, requesting to end deliberations at 5 p.m. so a juror could attend an event.

Being Pro-Muslim in a Complicated World by Denis MacEoin

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12633/being-pro-muslim

No doubt those who ignore or cover up abuses such as beatings, female genital mutilation or general repression do so out of cultural sensitivity, deferring to traditionalist leaders and self-appointed representatives of various communities, including Muslim bodies. Their sensitivity, however, can end up gravely impairing the lives of literally hundreds of millions of Muslim women in allowing harmful practices to be perpetuated.

Genuine humanitarian concerns about injustice to Muslims, however, have been mingled with a political and religious attitude that condemns anyone who expresses even the mildest questioning of Islam — so much so, in fact, that many well-intentioned Western politicians, human rights advocates, church leaders and journalists have turned Islam into the one and only ideology that must never be criticized, and have called anyone who so much as comments on some of the precepts of Islam as “racist.”

The view that Islam should not be questioned, seems to have led to a lack of reciprocity: radical Islamic individuals and bodies are often permitted to preach hatred for the West in mosques, centres, and university campuses, but non-Muslims commenting on genuine concerns are frequently the objects of public abuse and even criminal prosecution.

What is needed are more organizations that stand out as pro-Muslim in support of bettering the lives of Muslims; many are often too fearful of retribution to speak out.

My, how the world changes. When, in late 1978, your humble correspondent presented the first translations into English of passages from Ayatollah Khomeini’s book, Velayat-e Faqih (“Governance of the Jurist”), bought in Tehran in 1977, I knew the religious extremists would challenge the shah’s rule, but I was certain they had no chance against his army, police, and security services.

The Death of France How French leaders trigger lawlessness by their own cowardice and passivity. Stephen Brown

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271029/death-france-stephen-brown

If radical Islamic clerics thought they were immune to terror threats themselves, then they have now been disabused of that notion. Last month in France, instead of the predictable pattern of arrests of Islamic jihadists plotting deadly terrorist attacks; this time, the jihadists were apparently the targets themselves. This turn of events signals France’s accelerated spiral into lawless violence.
The French newspaper Le Figaro reported that police in June took ten people into custody for allegedly targeting for attack “radical imams, veiled women and convicted jihadists released from prison.” (There are currently 512 people convicted on terrorism charges in French prisons.) The arrests were made in the Paris region, Corsica, and in Charante-Maritime.

“This group was aiming for ‘targets presumed in connection with radical Islam,’ ” a source told Le Figaro.

Raids on several homes turned up “rifles, pistols, and homemade grenades” and police reported this “groupuscule” (small group) “trained regularly at sport shooting clubs and had prepared arms caches and food supplies in case of a major crisis.” (Which makes one wonder whether they were “ultra-right” terrorists or simply survivalists.)

New Evidence Emerges In Ellison Domestic Abuse Allegations Democrats and media go into protection mode. Matthew Vadum

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271050/new-evidence-emerges-ellison-domestic-abuse-matthew-vadum

Minnesota Democrats have chosen an in-your-face Muslim lawmaker who has been accused of serial domestic abuse as their official candidate for the top law enforcement post in that state.

Minnesota is an important state for President Trump and Republicans. Trump barely lost the state in 2016 and is hoping to put it in his column in 2020. Democrats there are still traumatized over Sen. Al Franken’s resignation over sexual harassment allegations.

In voting Tuesday, Ellison won 49.8 percent or 280,282 votes, besting his nearest rival, Debra Hilstrom, who garnered 19.1 percent or 107,794 votes. An admirer of convicted cop killer and leftist folk hero Mumia Abu Jamal, Ellison will face Republican nominee Doug Wardlow in the general election Nov. 6.

Ellison is a former co-chairman of the Communist-linked Congressional Progressive Caucus. He is also a former member of the Nation of Islam who described its Hitler-loving leader Louis Farrakhan as “a role model for black youth.”

Ellison said he was “honored to have earned the overwhelming support” of Democrats.

“As the People’s Lawyer, I will be on the front lines to defend the rights and freedoms of all Minnesotans,” said the alleged serial girlfriend beater. “As your Attorney General, I will fight every day to put Minnesota families ahead of powerful special interests, to increase access to affordable health care, make our economy more fair, and expand opportunity for all.”

Junk Science and Leftist Folklore Have Set California Ablaze How left-wing “global warming” policies are torching the West Coast. Bruce Thornton

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271044/junk-science-and-leftist-folklore-have-set-bruce-thornton

The Left Coast is burning. Oregon is fighting 13 wildfires encompassing 185,000 acres. California is battling 19 fires, including tornados of fire called “fire whirls,” which have gobbled up 577,000 acres and left eight dead. A good progressive who never lets a crisis go to waste, Governor Jerry Brown told Californians, “With climate change, some scientists are saying that Southern California is literally burning up.” He warned that man-made global warming created a “new normal,” and that “more serious predictions of warming and fires to occur later in the century, 2040 or 2050, [are] now occurring in real time.”

A few days later Brown had a tweet-duel with President Trump, who in contrast claimed, “California wildfires are being magnified & made so much worse by the bad environmental laws,” like those against thinning and clearing forests: “Tree clear to stop fire spreading!” Seems like on this issue, the allegedly doltish Trump has the better argument than the Berkeley and Yale-trained Brown.

Indeed, doctor of environmental science and forester Bob Zybach for years has been the Cassandra warning about misguided policies on forest management. According to Zybach, wildfires began to increase in the late 70’s, at the same time policies moved away from active management of forests to a more hands-off “natural” approach. In the past, “Mostly fuels were removed through logging, active management — which they [the Feds] stopped– and grazing,” Zybach said in an interview. “You take away logging, grazing, and maintenance, and you get firebombs.”

In other words, leaving the forests to “nature,” and protecting the endangered Spotted Owl created denser forests––300-400 trees per acre rather than 50-80–– with more fuel from the 129 million diseased and dead trees that create more intense and destructive fires. Yet California spends more than ten times as much money on electric vehicle subsidies ($335 million) than on reducing fuel in a mere 60,000 of 33 million acres of forests ($30 million).

Nice Ladies Leaving the Democratic Party By Karin McQuillan

https://amgreatness.com/2018/08/17/nice-ladies-leaving

Democrats are leaving their party more in sorrow than in anger, but leaving it they are, sickened by the Democratic Party’s hard left turn. Tens of thousands are telling their stories on the #walkaway movement’s public Facebook page. Their YouTube videos are a fascinating window into the innermost thoughts of kind, thoughtful people across America—all former Democrats.

My personal favorites are what I call “nice ladies driven away by Democrat hate.” During and after the election, many women stopped buying what the Dems are selling. They come from every generation, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, and region of America. These women warm my heart because I have been waiting and hoping that ordinary Democratic voters would be revolted by their party’s embrace of vitriol and violence. It appears to be happening at last. They are walking away from Democrat politicians, cultural and media icons. The treatment of Trump and his voters has been a step too far.

Bottom line: these nice, normal women don’t feel comfortable being members of a club full of haters.

Nationalism Is Dead. Long Live Nationalism. In his new book, Yoram Hazony sees the world through a Zionist lens, offering an intriguing way forward By David P. Goldman

https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-

Nationalism got a bad name after the First World War, and a worse one after the Second. Yoram Hazony now offers a defense of the concept consistent with the nationalist revival that began with Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, and the time is ripe for his book, The Virtue of Nationalism. After the fall of Communism, the conventional wisdom held that the liberal model would triumph around the world. The War on Terror presumed that nation-building through representative democracy would transform the unruly tribal states of the Muslim world into modern nations. The catastrophic failure of the liberal program opens the way for a new kind of political thinking, and Hazony offers a timely contribution to the debate.

Liberal political theory begins and ends with the enlightened self-interest of individuals, but that has poor explanatory power, as Hazony observes:

Many political theories assume that political events are motivated by the individual’s concern for his own life and property. … But human individuals are also capable of regarding the aims and interest of a collective or institution of which they are members as their own, and of acting upon these aims and interests even where such action will be detrimental to their lives and property.

Under extreme conditions, nations may destroy themselves, or fight until their manpower is close to exhaustion. That explains why so many wars end after a 30-percent attrition of the military-age population. Conversely, nations that feel themselves defeated or bereft of prospects simply die out through infertility. The historical norm is not liberal democracy; the norm, rather, is extinction, as I argued in my 2011 book, How Civilizations Die.

The Genocidal Elite, Part III: The Trail of ‘White Tears’ By Mytheos Holt

https://amgreatness.com/2018/08/16/the-genocidal-elite-part

Sarah Jeong and her defenders in the media truly have given America a gift. Where once it was only dark speculation that media elites, at best, are ambivalent toward openly genocidal and bigoted statements about white Americans, now we are certain that these sentiments exist.

We know, too, that the most common defense of these sentiments—that they cannot possibly lead to any sort of bad situation, because the privilege of whites is simply too impregnable for attacks on them to land—is deeply flawed. Anti-white rhetorical excesses can and do lead to terrible human rights abuses, and are often used to justify them, particularly in countries with weaker economies and non-white majorities such as South Africa.

For the New York Times, a paper with a global reach, to normalize such rhetoric by placing someone who spews it on their editorial board at the same time they blacklist people for much tamer statements about other races is cavalier and uninformed at best. Further, it suggests that our elite are already prepared to make excuses in case of third world style interracial violence against white citizens. As I noted at the end of my last piece in this series:

[W]hat South Africa shows us is something grimmer: namely, a society where elite status is such a blinder on the wealthiest people of one race that they willingly ignore policies and behaviors that approach genocidal character against what Dickens would have called “their hungry brothers in the dust.” A society where an arrogant elite assumes that its status is so impregnable that they can tolerate hate speech, violence, and persecutory policies explicitly directed at all people like them, just because they assume their own privilege is so great that tolerating that behavior is magnanimous. In other words, a society where Hannah Arendt’s notion of the “banality of evil” is inflicted not by one race against outsiders, but by one race against others like themselves out of sheer indifference, contempt, or desire to reinforce their own status.

This is not only an attitude that we have to fear here, but an attitude I believe already exists among today’s elite. In this piece, I will attempt to establish the existence of this attitude, to explain it, and to provide a warning about how it could become increasingly problematic in the face of future American demographic trends.

Marxism and Marriage By David Solway

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/08/marxism_and_marriage.html

In its centuries-long efforts to dismantle the load-bearing structures of traditional and classical liberal society, Marxist dogma in its various forms – communism, socialism, neo-Marxism, Cultural Marxism – has embarked on a sustained campaign to weaken and ultimately to abolish the institution of marriage as it has been commonly understood since time immemorial. The dissolution or misprision of marriage, as a contract between a man and a woman committed to raising a family and recognizing its attendant responsibilities, is a prerequisite for the revolutionary socialist state in which the pivotal loyalty of the individual belongs to the sovereign collective, not to the family.

Advocacy and legislation that sunder the intimate love between a man and a woman, that deprive children of male and female parental role models, that compromise the integrity of the family and that dissolve the purpose of marriage as a guarantor of cultural longevity are indispensable strategies essential to realizing the left’s master plan. Dismissing the nuclear family as an archaic and repressive arrangement whose time has passed, the state would then operate in loco parentis.

The problem for the left is that the family is a traditional dynamic that precedes and eclipses the tenure of the authoritarian state, not only because it encourages a prior allegiance, but because it allows for the retention of inheritance and property rights within the generational unit. This is anathema to the Marxist vision of, in historian Jacob Talmon’s phrase from The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy, the “all-property-owning state,” a function of “political Messianism.” The Marxist offensive against marriage may be seen, in part, as the ideological version of a corporate takeover.

Barbara Jordan on Impeachment By Eileen F. Toplansky

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/08/barbara_jordan_on_impeachment.html

With the constant cries for impeachment that swirl around Donald J. Trump, it is incumbent upon us to remember the wise and reasoned words of Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, who on July 25, 1974 gave an eloquent and dispassionate speech concerning the impeachment hearings against then-president Richard M. Nixon.

It behooves us all to bear in mind Jordan’s words today. Even though she reminds the nation that in 1787, when the Constitution was completed, African-Americans like herself were “left out,” she also explains that “through the process of amendment, interpretation and court decision,” she was finally and irrevocably included in “we, the people.”

Thus, she firmly asserts that her “faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total.” She refuses to “be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution” as it concerns “those offenses which proceed from the misconduct of public men.”

In the strongest of terms, Jordan asserts that “the jurisdiction comes from the abuse or violation of some public trust.” In fact, “it is a misreading of the Constitution, for any member here to assert that for a member to vote for an article of impeachment means that that member must be convinced that the President should be removed from office.”